Sixteenth Century Colonialism example essay topic

European overseas expansion evolved from sixteenth-century colonialism driven by mercantilism to nineteenth-century nationalistic imperialism. Both had different forces compelling them; thus different countries-although most the same-participated in each phenomenon with unique, but largely similar goals. These two forces that overtook the world are comparable as they both have the same objectives; however, mercantilism compelled colonialism while nationalism drove imperialism. Colonialism Beginning in the sixteenth century and lasting until the early seventeenth century, several European countries colonial ized by formally exerting the control of their political entity over another political entity in a different geographical location.

Spain, Portugal, England, France, and Holland were the primary "exert ers of control", while the Americas and its neighboring islands, along with small colonies in Africa and Asia, were the "exerted upon". The main force compelling these expansions was the doctrine of mercantilism. Three different systems of colonialism played themselves out in different locations. Plantations were assembled when the climate was favorable and the workforce was available; factories were set up when extractable resources were to be obtained without a foreign conquest; and settlement colonies appeared where the Europeans favored the environment and felt un intimidated by natives. Basically, these strong countries dominated weaker ones to promote their own national self-interest, mostly out of economic reasons, although it has been said that gold, God, and glory were the three primary motives for colonialism in any form. God, or religion, played a role in colonialism; sometimes with Roman Catholic colonialists eager to spread their beliefs to the non-Christian native peoples, or sometimes with colonialists eager to leave it all behind and start anew without the pressures of religious intolerance.

Glory, or colonial supremacy, also played a big role in colonialism. A race to be number one in trade, in goods, and in colonies was always a sprint to the finish. However, the biggest motivation in colonialism was the mercantilistic doctrine that dominated the mindset of the European colonial powers in the sixteenth century. Mercantilism held that a nation's wealth consisted of the amount of precious metals, especially gold, it possessed. It assumed that the volume of world wealth and trade was relatively static; so one country's gain required another's loss. Thus, each individual country protected their domains and enterprises against European rivals, preventing their trading allies and their subject people overseas from trading with their rivals if at all possible.

In addition, a colonial possession-whether it was a factory, settlement colony, or plantation-should provide wealth to the country that controlled it and was only an appendage of the mother country. In other words, colonies theoretically existed only for the economic benefit of the colonialist's country. The European countries that involved themselves in colonialism mostly wanted to gain the same thing: colonial supremacy. Looking for an economic boom, colonialists sought out any sort of trade-especially in precious metals-that promised profit. European explorers' goals were simply to be the biggest traders, have the biggest market, and be the biggest leader in colonial expansion.

The Iberian powers of Spain and Portugal were the first Europeans to form colonies. The Portuguese began exploring in the fifteenth century, establishing factories were desirable goods such as gold, pepper, and black slaves were available. Portugal also initiated the plantation colony system when moving down the African coast, setting up sugar and slave plantations. Spain was the first to establish settlement colonies, located in South and Central America. Spanish colonization consisted of conquering and taxing the indigenous population, organizing economic enterprises to produce cash crops and mine the precious metals for exporting back to Spain. The other countries-Holland, France, and England-also began colonizing, although in the latter part of the fifteenth century.

Each country was involved in the factory system; English factories were set up in India; French dyewood factories in Brazil and fur factories in eastern Canada and Midwestern United States; Dutch coffee factories in Asia and the West Indies. England had the largest settlement colony occurring in the eastern United States, which later turned into an imperialistic colony itself.